Chapter 150 Careful Advocaat

Advocaat was right to be careful; Zenit's reserve team was not weak. At least they could bully a Slovakian team at home.

Zenit beat Moravce 2:0 at home. Chen Hero's good roommate, the leader of the Eating, Drinking, and Merrymaking Gang, Denisov, scored a goal, and the other goal was scored by Korean fullback Kim Dong-jin.

This goal excited the few Korean media present—with the rise of Chen Hero and the successive departures of Hyun Young-min and Lee Ho, the football power dynamic within Zenit had undergone a fundamental reversal between China and South Korea. The previously dominant Korean contingent had declined, leaving only Kim Dong-jin struggling to hold on, and he wasn't even a regular starter, only a rotation player.

Chen Hero, on the other hand, had transformed from an initial emergency substitute into today's absolute main force and core player.

This made the Korean media feel somewhat stifled—why is it that Korean football is clearly better than Chinese football, yet at Zenit, the Chinese players are more powerful than the players from our Great Korean Republic?

Now that Kim Dong-jin had scored, it was also the first goal for Zenit by an Asian player in a European competition, which gave the Korean media a sense of relief.

In reality, these were just the Korean media's own petty thoughts. Chen Hero and Kim Dong-jin had no idea... If Chen Hero knew, he would definitely roll his eyes, because the Korean media was too bored.

Who would compete with others over this!

The first Asian player to score a goal? What's so rare about that? It's not like it's the first player in Asian history to score in a European competition, which would have some commemorative significance. Just the first Asian player from Zenit to score in the UEFA Cup... Who cares!

Having defeated Moravce at home, ensuring the team's advancement to the third qualifying round, Zenit could now focus on their opponents in the league.

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On September 2nd, in the twenty-third round of the league, Saint Petersburg Zenit defeated Kuban 1:0 at home, but Chen Hero did not score.

In another important battle, Moscow Spartak fought to a draw with Moscow CSKA after ninety minutes of intense play at home. Likewise, Pavlyuchenko did not score.

Taking advantage of this victory and the opponent's draw, Zenit narrowed the gap with their opponents. Now they were only one point behind Moscow Spartak!

This was a point difference that excited the entire city of Saint Petersburg.

More than twenty years! Saint Petersburg Zenit had never won the league championship. The Russian Premier League had been established for more than ten years, and Zenit had risen and fallen, at most a spoiler, never able to become a king.

But this time, we have a great opportunity!

We have the Northern Giant Bear, Chen Hero, we have Russia's best football player, Arshavin, we also have the Ukrainian Iron Waist, Tymoshchuk, the Argentine attacking midfielder, Dominguez... We are in good shape now, we must win the league championship this season!

With all twenty-three rounds of the league completed, the longing for the league championship rose in the hearts of all Saint Petersburg people.

But now they had to put their urgent desire for the championship aside for the time being.

Because the next round of the league would have to wait until September 23rd...

There were twenty days in between, without a single league game, only one Russian Cup game and the first leg of the third qualifying round of the UEFA Cup.

Without a game, Chen Hero also had things to do. First, he had to get his driver's license during this time. He had been studying intermittently for more than half a year, and finally it was time to take the test.

Secondly, he had to work hard to level up.

He had already maxed out his "Airborne" talent. What should he level up next? Chen Hero had already made plans, he had set his sights on the "Immovable as a Mountain" talent.

"Immovable as a Mountain" (5): Increases physical resistance, with a 6/12/18/24/30% chance of not losing balance when collided with by an opponent.

Why level up this talent?

Because Chen Hero had discovered in actual games that although his Cannon talent was maxed out, in theory, his long-range shot goal rate should be very high, but the actual situation was not like that. So, was there a problem with the talent?

No, the hit rate in the talent actually had two conditions. First, the long-range shot had to be within the range of the goalposts to exert the effect of the Cannon, and second, this probability was a number without interference. Once there was interference, it was unclear, so the talent could not take into account how high the scoring rate was under interference.

This was what Chen Hero had figured out through his own pondering and experimentation. First, he kept taking long-range shots in the training instance, and found that without a goalkeeper or defensive players, his long-range shot goal rate was indeed quite high, which meant that the probability of hitting the goalposts was very high. So in fact, Cannon didn't increase the goal rate, it increased the long-range shot hit rate. The probability of scoring would naturally increase with the increased hit rate.

Through constant long-range shot experiments, Chen Hero discovered the true meaning of this talent, and then began to experiment with the goal rate of long-range shots under duress in the training instance. As expected, it dropped greatly.

He was good at using his body when competing for headers, but the way he used his body was different from the way he used his body when shooting. One was in the air and the other was on the ground, the way of exerting force, the way of borrowing force, and the way of maintaining balance were all different. In addition, Chen Hero had received more training on his head than on his feet since he was a child. Thanks to Chinese football's focus on physique and neglect of technique, his footwork was terrible, and his shooting skills were naturally terrible. He had never specifically practiced his footwork, relying solely on his body and head to rampage through the youth teams of all ages.

It wasn't until he arrived in Saint Petersburg that he began to practice his footwork. He lagged far behind his teammates in many things. If it weren't for his abnormal gas tank, this Zenit team would never have had a place for him.

In order to ensure that he wouldn't lose his balance when shooting, whether it was a long-range shot outside the penalty area or a shot in the penalty area, and that the shot wouldn't go wide of the goal, he constantly did targeted training in the training instance.

But such improvement was too slow for him. He worried that one day he would be targeted and frozen to death by the other side using a set of tactics, and he would become a useless person.

His goal was to be a hero on the football field, how could he be so easily frozen and targeted to death?

He studied the talent tree and found that the "Immovable as a Mountain" talent was almost designed to be used at this time! Because his own physical resistance was not weak, and the other side usually couldn't get any advantage by fouling him. For example, when preparing to compete for a corner kick in the penalty area, if the other side's center back wanted to compete with him physically, and block his position, the average defender couldn't do anything about him. But it was different when shooting—first of all, he must be supporting his entire body with one foot, while shooting with the other foot. In this way, he was already in an unbalanced state. A little external force, with just the right angle and strength, would be enough to make him lose his balance, and the football shot out would naturally lose its accuracy.

Yesenin was right, none of the talents were useless, it just depended on whether you knew how to combine and use them...

Leveling up the "Immovable as a Mountain" talent would give him a chance not to lose his balance when the opponent bumped into him and interfered with him while shooting, and then shoot the football out. Combined with the effect of the Cannon talent, long-range shots could truly become a major weapon for Chen Hero to capture cities and seize strongholds!

"Immovable as a Mountain" required five talent points to max out, which meant that Chen Hero needed to level up five times. The experience required for leveling up now was in the hundreds of thousands, so Chen Hero had to work hard to level up and farm experience.

Through this experiment, Chen Hero became more comfortable with how to manipulate the training instance to meet his training requirements and conduct more targeted training.

This could also be considered another gain.

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Sharapova was refreshing the webpage. In fact, this was a meaningless action, because no matter how many times she refreshed it, the webpage would still be the same, there would be no change. In front of her was the official website of Saint Petersburg Zenit.

The news on it was from three days ago.

In Sharapova's view, Zenit's official website administrator was very lazy. The news from three days ago was still on the homepage, and the update frequency was very slow. It would take several days to add an article, and they were all things that had no substantial content, or that she didn't care about at all.

After several months of recuperation, her shoulder injury was gradually recovering. Now she could pick up a racket and do some simple rehabilitation training.

This period of time was very difficult. The media's attention to her had declined, some fans were disappointed in her, and even sponsors had revealed their intention to cancel some commercial contracts. Her father's expectations of her, the coach's expectations of her, the agent's expectations of her... all of these formed a huge pressure, turning into the Sword of Damocles hanging over her head.

If it had been before, she would have felt that such a life was a torment every day, a pain every moment.

But when she thought of what that bastard had once said to her, she suddenly found a way to solve this situation—not to treat those as pressure, but only as challenges. When she thought that one day she would make a comeback, and then go and make trouble for those media, she felt very happy and full of motivation.

Just like that bastard was wantonly criticized by the media, and then used the method of slapping in the face after scoring a goal on the field to fight back against the criticism.

All the emotions were vented at that moment, so... satisfying!

Work hard to train and recover, then make a comeback, and use victory to slap the faces of those who criticize—this has even become the only pillar for this Russian girl in the days when she is repeatedly tormented by injuries.

Chen Hero may have really forgotten what he used to make Sharapova happy in the bar that day, but Sharapova herself had not forgotten.

If life bullies you... then f*** its mother!

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In her spare time from training, Sharapova's entertainment activities were surfing the Internet, chatting with her fans, updating her personal website, and browsing the news.

At this time, she would mostly click into the official website of Saint Petersburg Zenit in her favorites.

But she was not a Zenit fan.

Sharapova recovered from her trance, looked at the unchanging page on the screen, sighed, and threw the mouse away.

Zenit didn't have any decent games during this time, just a Russian Cup game, and they were all letting the substitutes play.

Chen Hero didn't play for a minute.

The official website didn't report anything about the usual training, and what's even more excessive... there wasn't even a single photo!

Sharapova suddenly came back to her senses, she let go of the mouse, looked at the screen and curled her lips.

Why do I care so much about that bastard?

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ps, I know the number of monthly tickets has not reached the goal, and there is still a big difference. But I can't stay up any longer, I have to go to sleep. I ran outside all day today, using my feet to measure the ancient town of Jiezitou several times... I have to go out again tomorrow, so to avoid driving while tired, I decided to go to bed early. I won't stay up late to write new chapters today, although the number of manuscripts is decreasing day by day, there is nothing I can do about it.

So I'm giving you the bonus chapter for 2350 monthly tickets in advance. I'll also put out two chapters for tomorrow's guaranteed update first. Please wait until I get home in the evening to make up for the monthly ticket bonus update. Thank you everyone.

Finally, the double monthly ticket event ends at twelve o'clock noon on October 8th, which means that everyone can still enjoy the benefits of double monthly tickets for a day and a half.

Now, every 50 monthly tickets gets a bonus chapter, which is actually equivalent to 25 monthly tickets for a bonus chapter. After the double monthly tickets are over, it will be a solid 50 monthly tickets for a bonus chapter, so don't miss this opportunity, and smash the tickets like crazy while there is still a day and a half left!!